My preceding post dealt with the resignation (or axing, depending on how you look at it) of David Martinon from the candidacy for mayor of Neuilly, to be replaced by an UMP party ticket with the names of Jean Sarkozy (the son of Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president), Arnaud Teullé, and Marie-Cécile Ménard. The French municipal elections are set for Sundays March 9 and 16, in two rounds, as is customary.

But the divisions within the ranks of Nicolas Sarkozy’s UMP did not stop there. Le Salon Beige reports:

Following the defection of Martinon, the UMP announced it was supporting the candidacy of Jean-Christophe Fromantin, a candidate from the "diverse Right" [a coalition of small satellite parties connected to the UMP]. Fromantin, who had opposed Martinon, is to put together a new ticket with a "large assemblage" of individuals.
 
Immediately afterwards, Arnaud Teullé, adjunct of the mayor of Neuilly, who had dropped David Martinon after working alongside him, announced that was going to create a dissident ticket of his own. Arnaud Teullé is currently counsel at Elysée Palace. He would risk being excluded from the party. Marie-Cécile Ménard, who had also dropped Martinon, is joining Fromantin. And Fromantin has declared that he will campaign "without Arnaud Teullé and without Jean Sarkozy.

I know it's confusing, but if you read the above carefully, at least one person, Arnaud Teullé, is objecting to whomever Nicolas Sarkozy appoints as a candidate. But what is really confusing is that the new presidential favorite Jean-Christophe Fromantin claims he is forging ahead without Jean Sarkozy, so where does that leave the president's son? Possibly he had a mission – to get rid of Martinon, and then to step aside?
 
If you think that is confusing, there is another article, also at Le Salon Beige, that reveals growing dissent in cities other than Neuilly. The resentment is the same – Nicolas Sarkozy is planting his choices everywhere and preventing other UMP candidates from running for office. The following is a sampling:

In Paris, in the 8th arrondissement, the incumbent UMP mayor François Lebel (who married Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni) is running against the official UMP candidate Pierre Lellouche. [...] The "parachuting" of Minister of Justice Rachida Dati into the 7th arrondissement, of the team of Jean-Marie Cavada and Minister of Finance Christine Lagarde into the 12th, of Marie-Laure Harel, an assistant at Elysée Palace into the 16th, have all aroused negative reactions as well.

The same scenario is playing out in Aix-en-Provence, Marignane, Nice, Mulhouse, Colmar, Metz, Reims, and numerous other towns and cities. Readers of French can get more information at Le Monde.
 
In America it would be most unlikely, if not unthinkable, for a president to intervene directly in local politics, to the point where he sends his own candidates for mayor in an attempt to spread his influence and prevent local people from running. If George Bush "parachuted" Condoleeza Rice to the next mayoral election in, say, Houston, creating a ticket just for her, even though there was a viable local Republican candidate, it's not likely she would get out unscathed.